Hint: If the reader wants your e-mail, it will get delivered
Reliable e-mail delivery is a cost of entry for anyone distributing e-newsletters. Without solid technology solutions and permission practices, you risk writing e-newsletters that won’t be read.
This move to view e-mail as a driver of lifetime-value relationships has changed dramatically from the days of “batch & blast” e-mailing, when marketers had no great expectations from the messages they distributed. E-mail distribution was just a cheap way to get a newsletter out.
The deliverability discussion in 2005 is really about the following:
1. Relevance—If you want your e-mail to be delivered, the key is to be relevant and focused on what the reader wants. The reader must want what you are sending. Communication must be tailored to the specific life stage of the various prospects in your database. Suppose we just met at a trade show. You should be talking to me with a completely different view than a prospect that is a little further down the prospect/conversion process. Of course, the message will be different for existing customers or for customers of different sizes with different needs and so on.
2. Frequency—Only communicate when you have something subscribers want to hear. People often ask, “Should I e-mail monthly or weekly?” E-mail when you have something that the individual reader wants. I’ve seen situations where a subscriber might get three e-mails one month and none for another two months. As long as you’re giving the reader valuable information, this is fine.
3. Permission— This may seem obvious, but don’t assume permission: ask for it. Reinforce it. Confirm it, and continually remind the reader that they gave it to you and why they did so. If you get a bowl full of business cards at a trade show, don’t just assume this gives you the right to add those names to your e-mail list. Send an introductory e-mail or better yet call those people on the phone. Get their permission to take the next step. Explain the value to them of your e-mail. This is a lot like dating, go slow and don’t appear too eager. It will improve your chances for success.
This advice is time tested. Seth Godin first spelled it out for us six years ago in his best-selling book: “Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers.” Godin said “permission marketing is anticipated, personal, and relevant."
Getting your e-mail delivered to the inbox with all of the image and links intact may be as easy as saying “please.” Asking permission is one of the best ways to avoid the junk mail folder. Here are some more ways to maximize delivery:
1. Ask to be Added to the Address Book: Outlook 2003 calls it the “Safe Sender” list and AOL refers to it as “People I Know.” Asking subscribers to add you to their list of known addresses is the best way to avoid filters and have your e-mail delivered to the inbox.
2. Remind Subscribers About How They Know You: Subscribers tend to forget how and when they opted in to communications. Jogging their memory really helps to increase opens and reduce the chance that a user will send future e-mail to the junk mail folder. At the top of the e-mail, include language such as: “You are receiving this e-mail because you opted-in to receiving our newsletter. To ensure that you receive future e-mails, please add name@company.com to your address book or safe sender list.”
3. Don’t Change Your From Address: Since you’re asking subscribers to add your “from address” to their address book, if you change it your e-mail again could be filtered.
4. Minimize Complaints with the Big Three: A high number of complaints from subscribers at Yahoo, AOL or Hotmail increase your chances of messages being filtered into junk mail. This is because these systems all use shared filtering across their users.
5. Use an ESP With Strong ISP Relationships: Companies practicing only permission based e-mail marketing and demonstrating a history of low undeliverable e-mails and complaint rates, can avoid the image and link suppression that most sends will encounter.
6. Watch Your Content: The junk mail filter in Outlook 2003 functions by scanning the content and sender of each message. Avoid overly promotional words and phrases, multiple exclamation points, all capital letters and other text often used by spammers.
Chris Baggott is co-founder of ExactTarget, a developer of on-demand outbound e-mail software solutions.
